Panning (0.3b)

Requirement

10 - 12 photographs

Purpose

Explore the use of panning to convey motion

Technical learning

• Panning seeks to capture the moving object sharply, or at least sharper than its background
• This creates a perception of movement, which comes from the blurred background rather than the sharp, or sharper, subject.

Exercise instructions

Swing the camera, on or off a tripod, so that the moving subject stays at the same fixed point in the frame. Take several shots at different shutter speeds. 1/30, 1/60 should give a fairly sharp subject, whilst the background is streaked.

Images and Review

Location: Again the road underneath the Blackfriars Railway Bridge

Time: 8.15 am on a Friday in August

I started panning at a relatively fast shutter speed of 1/125 sec, just to ease my way into learning the technique. This helped establish the rhythm needed to get the desired effect. I then reduced the shutter speed in steps to investigate the effect.

Masked cyclist attacks traffic! - f/125, subject sharp enough, background 

Time to speed up the shutter to 1/100...

Cyclist moves up the line - f 1/100 - sharp subject, more blur in background

Then moving to 1/60...

Now you see me, now you don't - f 1/60 - motion blur of background little change from previous image (van was crawling forward here, whereas in first 2 images the vehicles were waiting for the traffic lights to change)

The Mad Max goes to the office - who said commuting is dull? -f 1/60 - nearside van is less sharp because it is moving opposite to the pan and is closer to the camera

Synchronised cycling? - f 1/60 - as with the previous image, the nearside cyclist is very blurred since it was moving against the pan and is closer to the camera

Let's try 1/30...

The Boris Bike on city streets - f 1/30

An another one...f 1/30 - classic pan effect. Blurred pedestrian walking out of the frame, bottom left, is a distraction (which I should crop out)

No offense, whoever you are, but the older you get the stiffer you get - f 1/30 - another classic pan effect: improvement on the previous image because the subject is closer to the rear edge of the frame, giving a greater sense of implied forward movement

Yellow peril - f 1/30 - Achieves an abstract view of speed, largely due to the coincidental crossing cycle

Finally, can I make it work at 1/20?

One of the few who used hand signals before pulling out - f 1/20 - Subject is sharp in parts: the blurred spokes add to the sense of motion

When road users streak - f 1/20 - Another abstract view of speed, more evocative than its predecessor

My favourites from each of 1/60, 1/30 and 1/20 are:

• 1/60 - 'Mad Max', conveys the tension that the cyclists must fight to survive on London's roads (but wish I caught marginally more of him at the left hand edge)
• 1/30 - 'Synchronised cycling', has a contrast between the solid form of one cyclist and the ghost like quality of the other
• 1/20 - 'Road Users Streak', communicates a strong impression of speed

Further learning points

• The key skill in panning is to sweep the camera parallel to the moving subject and track its movement by keeping the subject in the same position in the viewfinder - takes a bit of practice!
• The presence of other vehicles and pedestrians at different distances and moving at varying speeds adds interest, although their impact is hard to control
• Panning as a technique to convey motion has an advantage over shooting with a fixed camera at a set shutter speed. It captures the detail of the subject, whilst still communicating a sense of movement. On the other hand, the fixed camera has to freeze the scene to render the moving subject sharp. This drains the sense of movement from the image, unless other clues prompt the mind to perceive motion (e.g. freeze frame of athletes in a race)